The Gascoignes :: Part Six

Colonel Frederick Richard Thomas Trench-Gascoigne

The header picture is a taken from a recently acquired painting by the artist, Nancy Rayner [1827-1855, Further information about Nancy and her very talented family is available on the Dudley Mail Website], titled: Study from the Drawing room, Parlington [1852]. View larger picture [Taken prior to the restoration of the painting after it was acquired by Leeds City Council] The picture is used with the permission of Leeds Museum & Galleries, Lotherton Hall. The painting was discovered as a result of a reader finding the Parlington web site and has been purchased by Leeds City Council and after restoration it will be on display at Lotherton Hall.

The foreground of the image shows a young Frederick Richard T. Trench-Gascoigne on a cushion in the Drawing Room of Parlington Hall, this is the only image of the interior of Parlington, indeed it is the only known image of Colonel Frederick Charles Trench-Gascoigne! Not that it is suficiently clear to give more than an overall impression of him, also in the picture, anti-clockwise from the Colonel, seated at the piano is Isabella the young boys mother, Elizabeth, Isabella's sister holding a newspaper, and in conversation with an unknown lady seated. [see below]

Richard Trench-Gascoigne (Richard: used here to differentiate him from his father Frederick) was born at Parlington on July 4th 1851, he was an only child (Recent newspaper revelations indicate that a stillborn child [boy] was delivered of Isabella and Frederick on October 3rd 1852 at Parlington) and in contrast to his grandfather and to a lesser extent his father, took a military career over one involving him in commerce and the running of the family mining business. He married on February 16 1892, the year after his mother Isabella had died. Like his parents he was late to marry, being 41 as was also his mother at his birth. So in two generations you might have expected three or perhaps even four to occur, by that I mean that the replacement rate was less than that taken as the usual meaning of the word generation, (the average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring)

Unknown Lady in the Header Picture

Perhaps the unknown lady was the widow of the Rev Hans Hamilton? She was staying at Parlington and her death notice appeared in the Leeds Mercury on June 6th 1857, some five years later than the date of the painting. She was the aunt of Isabella and Elizabeth, a sister of their father, Richard Oliver-Gascoigne [1762-1843]. The notice reads: On the 23rd ult., [23rd May 1857] at Parlington Hall, the residence of her niece, Mrs. Trench Gascoigne, aged 83, Mrs Hans Hamilton of Bertie Terrace, Leamington, relict of the late Rev. Hans Hamilton, D.D. and daughter of the late Right Hon. Silver Oliver, of Castle Oliver, in the County of Limerick. Her name was Susanna, if the citation in the peerage.com is correct.

From the peerage.com Hans Hamilton, M, #477342, d. 1839
Hans Hamilton was the son of Rt. Rev. Hugh Hamilton and Isabella Wood. He married Susanna Oliver, daughter of Rt. Hon. Silver Oliver and Isabella Sarah Newman. He died in 1839, without issue.
He was the Rector at Kilmoganny, County Kilkenny, Ireland. He graduated with a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.). He was the Rector at Knocktopher, County Kilkenny, Ireland. He held the office of Prebendary of Kilmanagh.

Clipping from The Leeds Mercury

Frederick Richard, Colonial Soldier

Given the nature of the times in which he lived, Richard was patently a Colonial Soldier, with a distinguished military record. He was a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards and served with the Nile Expedition of 1884-5, sent to the relief of General Gordon, At Khartoum. The following observation from the Rev F.S. Colman, summarizes how he was regarded in his day. He passed unwounded through the severe fighting of that great but too long delayed effort to save Gordon, and on the arrival of the force at Gubat on the Nile he accompanied Sir Charles Wilson on the steamer 'Bordein' which, with the 'Talahawiyeh,' was sent up the river to Khartoum, only to find when they reached their goal that Khartoum had already fallen and Gordon was dead. He was mentioned in despatches and received the medal with two clasps and the Khedive's Star. [Observations on the transcript of the Rev Colman, click on the note below.]

The words of the Rev F.S. Colman, from 1908 about the efforts of Captain Gascoigne in the endeavour to rescue General Gordon at Khartoum reflect very obviously a certain deference to matters of national pride, you can almost sense the Union Flags waving in response to a call to arms, for whatever reason this patriotism is seen only rarely these days, not since the Fauklands conflict I would argue.

Yorkshire Battalion Disembarking Cape Town

Later again as a Captain, but this time with the Yorkshire Hussar Squadron, which formed No. 9 Company of the 3rd Imperial Yeomenry, he went to serve in the Boer War[1] in February 1900. Subsequently taking command of the regiment until its return to England, and was then gazetted to the command of the Yorkshire Hussars. For his services in the Boer War he received the medal with four clasps and was awarded the Companionship of the Distinguished Service Order.

An Excursion, following publishing of the above Picture.

A reader recently [December 2010] contacted me about the above photograph as it suited an article he was writing concerning a Master Tailor, a Mr George Reed, from Etton, East Yorkshire, who in his twenties signed up for the Yorkshire Hussars, like Captain Gascoigne. Clearly they would have been familiar to each other, although rank would have acted as something of a divide, notwithstanding the high regard Gascoigne was held by his fellow officers and men. An article about the exploits of the son of a former stonemason is available here on the Pocklington History web site. One of the things to come out of this contact was that the troops shown are most likely disembarking from the SS Winifredian. A vessel that seems to have spent a good deal of time plying back and forth to the UK and also bringing Candian troops from Halifax Nova Scotia, to provide re-inforcements to the Empire! A whole web site dedicated to the history of the Anglo - Boer War is here at: http://www.angloboerwar.com/

A Passion for Mechanised Transport

The article on the Pockington site by Ian Gibbs highlights the interest of George Reed in motorcycles, this mirrors a similar fascination for Richard Gascoigne but his penchant was for the more expensive motor car. Indeed a tale relayed to me by the former chauffeur to the Gascoigne Family, Bill Burlingham described how in his later years the Colonal driving a large V8 Ford Pilot managed to run off the main driveway up towards the Triumphal Arch and hit one of the beech trees that line the road!

SS. Winifredian 10,422 tons

Brief Notes on the SS Winifredian and U Boats

A further note of interest; the SS Winifredian was torpedoed on 17th April 1917 off the north coast of Donegal, by U Boat UC76 commanded by, Wilhelm Barten, although seemingly not sunk. Further details are to be found on www.uboat.net towards the bottom of the page. What happened to her after that I do not know! However one thing is worth noting, the colonel as of 1917 was active in a number of ways in assisting the war effort, not least the conversion of Lotherton Hall to form a hospital for wounded troops. You can almost see him sitting in the study reading the Times, and spilling his tea as he read of the torpedoing of the SS Winifredian, his old troop ship from the Boer War! I would bargain he might have said, Damn the Hun! or Bloody Germans! or something along those lines.

A second view of the ship in full steam

Returning to the Gascoigne Theme!

In an earlier paragraph I alluded to the life style choice made by Richard Gascoigne, I made the point because to me it seems that he was able to embark on his military career, in part because his forebears had done much to provide a substantial wealth on the back of the estates, but more in particular on the strength of the Gascoigne mines. He was to some extent like the absent landlords so decried in Ireland in the early nineteenth century, a position which his mother, Isabella was set against along with her sister, Elizabeth. They strived to do their utmost to help the deteriorating position in Ireland in the 1840's.

The position was clear by the time, Richard was in full sway over the Gascoigne estate, some 15 years after his father's death, in 1919 he decided to sell out, and the three pits, valued at £100,000.00 were purchased by a limited company controlled by Wharncliffe Silkstone of Tankersley near Barnsley.

The pattern of distancing oneself from the routes of family wealth, but living from the proceeds, is a very common thread in British society after the early pioneers in the industrial age. Richard Oliver Gascoigne, turned a small colliery into a thriving business, his successor through marriage, Frederick, applied more of the same as his mantra, but lacked the imagination of his wife's father, only applying that which was necessary, such as the first steam engines in 1870. But the real innovation was in building the tracked infrastructure in the 1830's.

After the death of Richard in 1937, the Gascoigne heir, Alvery was already established in what might be considered as the next phase of British cultural transformation, the Civil Service!

In the years following the death of Colonel Frederick Gascoigne in 1905, although Parlington was largely unused, it was still in use by servants or employees of the family in the west wing, Richard allowed the estate and the Hall to be used for a variety of events[2], also see the introduction page to the Hall. During the First World War, Lotherton was utilised as an infirmary for the wounded, indeed Cynthia, Richard's daughter was a nurse.

Richard and his wife Gwendolen did much to turn Lotherton into a fine family home, lavishing considerable time and money on the house and gardens[3], it is said that they chose to live at Lotherton over Parlington because of the prevailing damp conditions to be found in the old hall, the dampness is still evident! Perhaps the truth lies in the simple fact that they were able to take advantage of lotherton only a year after marrying, when Richard inherited the Lotherton estates from his aunt Elizabeth, who died without an heir. Lotherton afforded them the opportunity to spend their money on equiping the house with central heating and electricity alongside making alterations to the house in general. To have moved back to Parlington after 1905, would not have been a consideration.

Richard and his family were the first of the Gascoignes to live at Lotherton, the estate had been purchased by Richard Oliver Gascoigne [ROG] in 1825, possibly for his daughters as the expected lineage would have passed through his eldest and then second son, but following their untimely deaths in 1842, it passed to his daughter Elizabeth after he died in 1843, but she did not live there, choosing instead to live at Parlington until her marriage to Baron Ashtown.

The Gascoigne Family is not the focus of this site, therefore the family aspects are considered only during the time that they lived at Parlington and just after, more recent history concerning the family is available at Lotherton Hall.

Notes

To assist in the legibility of these pages I am introducing a comments system, which takes the form of the icon with an identifier of SHOW or HIDE. These are to add contextual references to the copy, which may need additional explanation.

Within the main column are occasional references marked like this [1] which link to this notes column, to return to the point in the body copy click on the [Back] link.

[1]An extract from Ronald Addymans's site which recounts the details of Captain F.R.T. Trench-Gascoigne's war in South Africa, click on the link below to visit his siteIn South Africa from October 1899 to May 1902 Britain was at war with the Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. At first the war went badly for Britain. For besides invading the British colonies of Cape Colony and Natal and laying siege to Kimberley, Mafeking and Ladysmith, the Boers inflicted a series of defeats on the British troops sent to relieve the besieged towns. The public at home were dismayed when reports of the army's reverses were published in Britain's national and regional press. All available Regular soldiers in Britain and elsewhere were quickly dispatched to South Africa to add to the British troops already there. With these and other reinforcements the war slowly turned in Britain's favour. [ Back ]Click Here

[2] A snippet of evidence, provided by David Teal, is an article in the Leeds paper The Skyrack Courier in 1910, Titled Scouts at Parlington ParkA Merry Time at the Old Hall[ Back ]

[Click Note for Transcript]

Skyrack story reads as follows: About a hundred members of the 7th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Leeds Rifles) spent a busy couple of days in Parlington Park, Aberford. They were out for scouting instruction, which is a very wide term - as they found out to their cost on Monday afternoon when they were searching for hidden Boy Scouts under a sweltering sun. It is an ideal spot for teaching the citizen soldier something more than the rudiments of spying out the land - and if long working days count for anything the men should benefit materially by their brief visit to this historic place.

Cyclists and men on foot paraded at the Carlton Hill Barracks on Monday morning, the cyclist section proceeding to Parlington by road via Foundry Lane. The remainder entrained at Leeds for Garforth and marched thence to the park, where the day's work was begun in earnest. Two lines of skirmishers were formed, and operations against an imaginary enemy were begun. Practice in the judgement of distance was also indulged in - and then came the well earned adjournment. For the heat was tropical and to work over varied ground without meeting any opposing force that might have been there - but was not - a view of you is arduous enough at any time.

It was in the afternoon, however, that the most interesting task of the day was entered upon. The youthful enthusiasts of the countryside who have adopted the slouch hat and the staff of the Boy Scouts were stationed in force in Parlington Park, and they welcomed the opportunity of pitting their ingenuity against that of the older folk from Leeds. The lads were only too eager to be the outposts of the 'enemy' and play a sort of hide-and-seek game with the Territorials. It was a great success, too, and some of the boys showed a marked aptitude for eliminating themselves from the landscape until the hostile scouts had passed. Captures, indeed, were remarkably few; but both sides claimed the victory. Late in the afternoon the 'engagement' was suspended, and the wearied men returned to quarters for the night highly satisfied with themselves - that is, if their vocal efforts were any criterion.

Thanks to Colonel Gascoigne's generous interest in the welfare of his visitors, the men were housed with every comfort at the Old Hall; and on Monday night they had a really rollicking time. For although the work was hard, it was never uninteresting, and in the beautiful park the glorious evening was more than compensation for the rigours of military duty. The men returned to Leeds on Tuesday evening.

[3] The gardens at Lotherton were the subject of a research document by Mette Eggen in 1987, her findings point to the establishment of the Parlington Gardens in the early 1930's. Additional evidence on the demolition photographs taken by the National Monuments Record, suggest that the demolition was carried out in two stages, the 1930's and 1952.[ Back ]Demolition Section

Comments

Particularly interesting is that Colonel Gascoigne, [Richard, that is, living at Lotherton] was able to accommodate around 100 Territorials in the Old Hall, that's a lot of people, and no mention of whether the scouts stayed over as well!

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